This invention consists of a tool that aids drum-set instructors in teaching drummers to play in the Jazz/Swing idiom. A teacher who instructs drum-set players to play in this idiom must encourage the drummer to read drum notation, master the coordinated physical movements dictated by the written exercises, and to correctly interpret those written exercises by playing them with a xe2x80x9cswingxe2x80x9d feel. The present invention provides a tool designed to help the student to read drum notation and teach the drum-set musician to develop the coordination required to interpret 4-way drum-set exercises, and to play with a xe2x80x9cswingingxe2x80x9d feel as well. Until this invention, no single tool could provide guidance in all three of these disciplines.
While teaching drum-set drummers to play in the Jazz/Swing idiom I discovered that the students experienced difficulty in three specific areas: Reading drum notation, practicing complex exercises slowly, and interpreting the written notation by playing them with a xe2x80x9cjazzxe2x80x9d feel.
First, many of the drummers had begun playing without benefit of formal lessons and accordingly had no knowledge of drum-set notation. They could not sight read or interpret the written exercises and had to memorize the patterns. The students could play drums in a band but could not read music. The present invention presents the written notes in a measured visual format in which the physical spaces between the written notes are directly related to the time-measurements between the notes as they are played.
Second, the students generally attempted to play the assigned exercises at too fast a tempo. This resulted in incorrect and uneven playing. It was difficult to persuade the student to slow down and learn to play the exercise correctly before increasing the speed. The present invention presents its notation in such a large format that the student is forced to scan the individual notes with deliberate eye movement enforcing the need to play the annotated patterns slowly.
Third, many students who had learned to play in the style of Rock music (straight 8th and straight 16th time) had difficulty in feeling the more relaxed Jazz/Swing pulse (triplet-feel 12/8 time). The student""s performance sounded rigid and stiff as opposed to flexible and flowing. The difference was between sensing rhythm in 4 pulses per beat against 3 pulses per beat. The present invention n juxtapositions the two styles adjacent to one another and makes visible the spatial relationships between them. The present invention clearly presents a method of playing and hearing both time pulses enabling the student to hear as well as see the difference between four pulses per beat and 3 pulses per beat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,037 describes an apparatus that uses a series of symbols inscribed on movable tiles. The device includes an array of tiles arranged within a frame. Each tile bears a symbol indicating the type of percussive stroke, the drum to be struck and possibly an indication of how many strokes are to be made in sequence. The tiles may be moved and rearranged in any desired order to enable the drummer to play different patterns of rhythmic sounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,968 describes a limited selection of percussion exercises and variations accompanied by preprinted transparent overlays that can be superimposed over the basic notation creating hybrid patterns. The overlays may be alternately superimposed in a functional relationship with the basic percussion exercises to create hybrid percussion exercises having adequate visual representation of the repetitive rhythmic patterns inherent in percussion music.
Neither of the devices enable individual left hand notes to be variably positioned against repeated right hand patterns. U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,037 uses non-standard symbols to indicate how the drum is to be struck unlike the present invention which enables the student to build a left hand pattern using individual notes, building slowly from the simple to the complex. U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,968 uses transparent overlays which are marked up with a felt pen by the teacher. Individual notes are presented in the normal notation size in contrast to the present invention. The present invention provides the notes in a large-scale format encouraging the student to play the pattern slowly at first . . . and enables the student to move different notes to different drums. Notes can be moved or added as the student masters the original exercise. By flipping down different right hand patterns the student can quickly display the same left hand rhythm against several different right hand patterns.
The drum-set student is required to gain an understanding of drum notation in order to learn from the available texts. The available texts are for the most part inflexible and rely on repetitive patterns with small incremental shifts in the pulse to reveal the subtle changes in the percussive patterns. A problem with these texts is that the drum-set student must develop a practice method that encompasses mechanical movement, repetitive practice and musical interpretation without benefit of a tool that focuses specifically on enforcing these disciplines.
The instant invention presents a variety of right hand xe2x80x9cridexe2x80x9d patterns in drum set notation to the student in large inch-high characters on a flip-down card attached to the backing with a spiral binding. Inscribed on a 3xc2xdxe2x80x3xc3x9711xc2xdxe2x80x3 card flip down page, a single measure occupies a space between 9xe2x80x3 and 11xe2x80x3 inches wide depending upon the type of pattern. Positioned below the flip down card are 16 sliding vertical dowels with disk-shaped note heads attached to their tops. Each dowel represents a note to be played depending upon which drum line the note is positioned . Each sliding bar is located exactly the same distance apart as space between the notes on the flip-down card directly above. This enables the teacher to indicate which drum should be struck by sliding the bar up and positioning the note head. The left hand or right foot (depending upon the vertical position of the sliding note-head) can play the note. The teacher can indicate high tom, snare, low tom or bass drum by sliding the tab up or down. In this manner many different two handxe2x80x94one foot patterns can be represented.
The concept of playing slowly and carefully is re-enforced.
The size of the notes and the relatively wide-spaces initially prompt the student to play the right hand exercise slowly.
The time concepts surrounding the reading of drum notation are realized.
Drum notation commonly reserves the space above the treble clef scale for the right hand cymbal pattern. The present invention uses half-page, spiral-bound cards to contain this notation. Each half-page is inscribed with a different right hand ride pattern positioned above five notation lines. The half pages are attached to the main card body with spiral binding. The half pages are flipped from the back of the card body to the front and overlay the upper half of the page. A new pattern is displayed as each page is turned back to front. Patterns on each page represent different right-hand rhythms drawn to the same spacing specification, with each note separated from the next by ⅝ths of an inch.
The lower half of the card body is composed of vertically sliding dowels, ⅝ths of an inch apart, each topped with a flexible circular disk that represents a note. The sliding dowel or the disk alone implies no time notation. When the sliding dowel is vertically positioned under a note or rest that appears on the upper half of the page the drum-set student can see that the drum can be struck with the left hand in a time pulse identical to the visualized space between the notes. A left hand note positioned exactly between two right hand notes would be played evenly between the three of them. This space-time relationship is adhered to throughout the operation of the invention. The notes are positioned horizontally in exactly the same space relationship as the time pulse they represent. This visual relationship enhances the student""s understanding of the aural spacing of the note. The note spacing looks like it sounds.
The concepts of Swing are presented visually.
Both the 8th note, 16th note and triplet forms of the swing ride pattern are presented. The close relationship between the spatial and aural timing of the notes is presented clearly and simply to the student. The student can both see and hear the effect of applying the triplet 12/8 swing feel or the straight 8th or 16th feel to the style of play.
Specific resolutions to three of the problems experienced by the drum-set instructor teaching jazz drumming are presented by use of the present invention. The size of the device caused the student to play slowly. The time-space relationship of the notation encourages the student to correctly interpret and play drum notation. The juxtaposition of 8th and 16th note notation with 12/8 triplet notation reveals important clues to the concept of the syncopated jazz pulse known as xe2x80x9cswingxe2x80x9d. The unique design of the invention affords the drum-set instructor with an important and effective teaching aid.